Clark-8 months

So Clark is now eight months old as of Monday. I know I have said this before but time really does go faster with a second. I can't believe Clark is closer to a year than birth. That is just crazy! Anyway, Clark is doing great and we love him more than ever. He is rolling all over the place but not crawling quite yet but seems close! He is moving backwards right now when he tries to move instead of forward. TC has predicted that he will crawl before New Year's Day so we will see if he is right. He predicted that Savanna would crawl before Halloween and walk before her 1st birthday and he was right on both occasions. (It's funny she did not crawl until she was 10.5 months and then walked at 11.5 months so she only crawled for a month of her life.) Clark is still in love with his food and his blanket. (He has to sleep with a blanket which makes me nervous but we use a light one). Clark still loves to grab everything in sight and jump in his jumper. He loves our phones-what is it with kids and electronics? He loves to be with his family and being held. What a fun little guy!

Thanksgiving

So I'm finally getting around to posting about our Thanksgiving trip. We had a wonderful time spending a week and a half with TC's family in Washington. It was wonderful because the whole family was able to be together except for TC's brother, James, who is on a mission. We got a ton of snow up there which was pretty though the roads were not great driving through the mountain passes on the way home but we made it home safely. We enjoyed playing a lot of games, going to a few movies, playing Rock Band with TC's cousin and her boyfriend, shopping (we went to the Black Friday sale at midnight at Wal Mart. It wasn't too bad. We got great deals on kids' pajamas!), eating A LOT, going to Chuck e Cheese, Olive Garden, Shari's, and throwing a bridal shower for Marisha. The highlight though was being able to be there when Marisha went through the temple. What a great experience that was! We are so excited for her upcoming marriage. It is right around the corner! The kids had a fun time and it was great for Savanna to be with her cousins, Lexi and Kaytlin. Here are some pictures from our trip. I realized I am not in any of them. I guess I took them all.

Savanna with her beloved, Cricket (Her Aunt April's dog)

Making snow ice cream

Clark with Aunt April

Gingerbread Houses

Wearing Grandpa's hat

Clark with his cousins and Grandma

Fun at the Bowling Alley

Thanksgiving Feast

Clark playing the piano with Daddy and Uncle John

Clark's cousins, Lexi and Kaytlin, just loved him. They were always playing with him. Here Lexi is reading him a book.

pFeeding Cricket

Kaytlin was always willing to feed Clark. I willing took the help.

Birthday weekend and more

So life has been fun and busy around here. My mom visited for a couple of weeks and my dad came in this past weekend along with my brother, my cousin and his son. Anyway we have been having some fun going to farm country, Disney on Ice, and Christmas shopping. Also last weekend I helped host a baby shower for my good friend, Aubrey. TC and I also went on a couple dates while my mom was here. We have Pioneer season tickets this year and we had a play, Dracula, to see while she was here. (I love going to plays and musicals and TC got significantly discounted tickets through his work!) We also did sealings at the temple. It was great to have my mom here for so long. I also turned the Big 28 on Sunday. It was a good birthday. My family and I went to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner Friday night. That place is so yummy so it is crazy loud and crowded on the weekends. I would suggest going more on the weekdays. My mom made pasta dinner on Sunday and then Monday night we had a group of friends over. My parents flew home yesterday. It was great to have them here and they will be back for Christmas which is not too far around the corner. Anyway, sorry I should have some more fun pictures over the past couple of weeks but I don't. I forgot my camera a few times and my mom used her phone to take pictures but I still need to get them from her.

Clark-7 months!

So I can't believe that Clark is already 7 months as of Saturday! It seems like time goes a lot faster with a second child. I don't remember it going as quick with Savanna. It is probably because I am even busier than I was with her. It does make me a bit sad that my kids are growing up so fast so I try to savor their childhood as much as possible (though when they are both screaming at me that is a bit more difficult!) Anyway, Clark is doing well though as mentioned before he did get a double ear infection last week but is recovering well. He is now sitting up very well and continues to roll. His favorite things are his family and FOOD! He loves to eat. He is impatient though when it comes to eating at times. He will scream at me while I am fixing his food and then will scream if I am not feeding it to him fast enough. My goodness! We are continuing to give him new food. His favorites still continue to be sweet potatoes, avocados, apples, and pears. He had a temporary lapse with sleeping through the night again for about 5 nights but has been doing well the last few nights. We love our sweet little guy! And yes it does appear Savanna is picking her nose in this picture but it was the cutest one I took of Clark in the leaves.

Exercise Videos

So my post high school and post baby metabolism has me working my BUTT off (literally) to get in and stay in shape. So I exercise a lot more now. SO I really do not prefer to exercise with videos. I rather jog or go to the gym. Unfortunately TC's work schedule only permits me to go the gym about three times a week because he leaves at 5 in the morning several times a week and I like to work out five times a week. I do not own a treadmill so I have been resorting to exercise videos a couple times a week but I've exhausted the lame disco abs and yoga ones at the library. Does anyone have any they really like? (And yes I have considered P90 X but do not have the time right now to exercise that long per day. I usually only get about a half an hour in.) Anyway, thanks for the help!

Price Matching

SO to follow up on my prior coupon post I wanted to thank all of you that has given me advice. I wanted to tell you that I started price matching and think it is awesome for any of you that would like to try it! I also use coupons on top of this method and feel like it is working great. I signed up for a blog called deals to meals and it is so easy to use. It does cost $5.00 a month but I am saving more than that on groceries. Essentially how it works is it will list all the items in red that are a better deal that week than Sam's Club, Costco or Wal Mart. You just add the items you want to your shopping cart for the week, bring it to Wal Mart and they will match any prices of any stores that are lower than theirs. I know many of you have probably heard of this before but if not you should totally look into it! Then I use coupons on top of it that I find from pinching your pennies.com. It feels good to have found a system that is working for me and to save some money!

Halloween weekend

So we had a great Halloween weekend though trick or treating turned out to be a bit of a flop (more explanation later). My mom came into town on Thursday and is staying for a couple of weeks. Thursday afternoon we headed over to Gardner village with the kids to enjoy the festivities. We tried to do a witch scavenger hunt with Savanna but she said she was scared of the witches so we just roamed around a couple of shops and got a Halloween cookie at the bakery. Then TC came and picked up the kids so my mom and I could go the Witchapoolza which is a dinner/dance show. It was hysterical! I loved it! I would highly recommend it to anyone and the food was pretty good as well. Friday we got together with a few friends and made Halloween cookies in the morning and then went out to lunch with my mom. That evening TC and I had our adult session of stake conference and my mom watched our kids for us. It was a great session and we enjoyed the spiritual uplift. Saturday my mom and I took Savanna and Clark to Corn Bellies. I had been trying to go with TC when he was not working but the weather was not cooperating so we ended up having to go without him. Savanna had a really fun time and especially loved jumping on the big pillows and getting a face painting of a pumpkin. That evening April, TC's sister, came over to go trick or treating. We ended up going out before TC got home from work because there was a window of time when it was not raining. We were hoping to go to more houses after he got home but Savanna was basically done in about forty minutes. It was sad because she was looking forward to trick or treating for the whole month but she was just really cold and uncomfortable. The weather was awful. Also her mermaid costume was wet because it was long and dragging on the ground. Clark only lasted about two houses because he was cold and not feeling super well. (He currently is on medicine for a double ear infection! Thank you honey for your genes! TC and a couple of his siblings got a ton of ear infections as kids and he ended up having ear tubes.) Anyway and Savanna was avoiding a dinosaur costume that seemed to be following her around the neighborhood because she said it scared her. (She is going through a bit of scaredy cat phase right now). Anyway, it still ended up being a fun night and I guess she doesn't need too much candy right? Sunday we had our general session of stake conference and then Savanna, Clark and TC enjoyed afternoon naps while my visiting teachers came and visited with my mom and I for three hours! It was actually great. I've never been visit taught that long before but these girls are some good friends of mine and I think it was therapeutic for all of us. Then after delivering some Halloween treats to the girls I visit teach and another friend we came back and enjoyed a nice Halloween themed dinner-Mummy meatloaf and Mac and Cheese goblins. Hey aren't you just so impressed with my creativity? The highlight of the weekend came though when we got a phone call from TC's little sister, Marisha, Sunday night telling us that she is ENGAGED!!! WE are so excited for her! Her and her fiance, Forrest, are getting married on December 18th and we can't wait! It is a little weird that she is old enough to get married because she was 14 when TC and I got married but time flies! It still feels weird to me that I am old enough to have two kids! Congrats again to the cute couple! Well here are some pictures from the weekend. Enjoy! I hope you all had a Happy Halloween as well!

Our cute little Ariel

Fun at Corn Bellies

Halloween Play Group (Apparently I was the entertainment.)

Mac and Cheese Goblins

Mummy Meatloaf

Cute Halloween Plates Savanna trying on some of our old Halloween costumes

Little Sebastian and Ariel (without her wig)